There’s a lot of talk about Jared Goff facing Sean McVay and the Rams this weekend, going up against the coach and team that dumped him three years ago. But as motivated as each side is to win this game, there are still some close relationships between Goff and some of his former teammates.
Ahead of this weekend’s contest, Aaron Donald reached out to Goff and shared a classy text for the Lions quarterback. He told Goff how proud he is of all he’s accomplished in Detroit, which was a kind thing to say before this playoff battle.
“We had a good relationship,” Donald said Thursday. “We were cool, proud of what he’d been accomplishing. Reached out to him and told him I’m proud of him. So I feel like we have a good relationship.”
“I just told him I was proud of him, what they’ve been accomplishing and what he’d been doing. I said, ‘I’ll see you Sunday night.’ He said, ‘Appreciate you, brother. I’ll see you Sunday night.’ It’s going to be fun.”
Donald’s top priority on Sunday night is going to be pressuring and sacking Goff, hopefully helping cause some turnovers and bad throws by the Lions quarterback. He knows Goff is “not the most mobile guy,” but he’s also well aware of what Goff can do “when he’s got a clean pocket.”
His text exchange with Goff wasn’t about telling his buddy, “I’m coming for you,” just sharing some appreciation for all that he’s accomplished.
“No, not that. I was really just texting him because I’m proud of what they accomplished, man,” Donald said. “He was here, helped us do some great things and then to go to Detroit, help build that back to where they’re at the day and all the success they’ve been having definitely this season. Just proud of him. Just wanted to let him know that and that was about it.”
In their first game against each other back in 2021, Donald didn’t sack Goff, but he did have three tackles in the win and landed one hit on the quarterback. He’ll try to improve on those numbers this weekend, hopefully taking down Goff for a negative play.
Donald and Goff didn’t win a Super Bowl together, but they did reach one in 2018 when they were teammates. Now, one of the two will try to get back to the big game again, starting with a win on Sunday.
